Boeing's McNerney was paid $14.8 million in 2008

With Boeing's poor 2008 performance, especially in the commercial airplane division, the compensation of its top executives was lower than it could have been.

But somehow, despite the stock's dive and the depressed profits, pay still rose for three out of the top four.

Chief executive Jim McNerney earned 14 percent more than the previous year.

Only Commercial Airplanes chief executive Scott Carson took a real hit. His total compensation fell 19 percent from the previous year.

Adjusting figures reported Friday to reflect true 2008 compensation, McNerney got $14.8 million in salary, bonuses and perks. That compares to $12.9 million in 2007.

Carson's total compensation was $3.2 million, down from $3.9 million in 2007.

The pay for top company executives was detailed in a filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The figures above were calculated from the Boeing data by Equilar, an independent advisory firm specializing in executive compensation.

Boeing's filing noted "below target" economic performance in 2008 largely due to "product development delays." The company's 787 Dreamliner program was further delayed to almost two years behind schedule, and the 747-8 was pushed out by nine months.

However, the Boeing board's compensation committee did not let another problem — the two-month Machinist strike in 2008 — factor into its executive pay awards.

The compensation measure that factors in the company's economic performance was specifically adjusted "to eliminate the impact of the IAM strike" to ensure that the awards "reflected underlying growth and performance," the filing said.

McNerney requested cuts to his annual and long-term incentive plan bonuses to reflect the depressed profits, and the company board accordingly shrunk each by 25 percent, knocking about $2.2 million off his compensation.

His 2008 annual bonus was 65 percent lower than in 2007. But that was more than made up for by the long-term incentive plan bonus, which is based on a three-year performance from 2006 through 2008 and was buoyed by good results in the first two years.

The perks McNerney received in 2008 included $287,000 worth of personal use of Boeing private jets, $67,000 in personal legal services, and $60,000 for personal use of a company car and driver.

Top Boeing executives receive individual performance scores annually that are one factor in calculating their bonuses.

McNerney's and Carson's individual scores came in below target. The head of the defense unit, Jim Albaugh, and chief financial officer James Bell both received individual scores above target.

Using the adjusted Equilar figures, Albaugh got $5.1 million in 2008 salary, bonuses and perks, compared to $4.1 million in 2007.

Bell's total compensation was $4.6 million, compared to $3.7 million in 2007. Both men were up 23 percent on the previous year.

In order to reflect Boeing's intentions in the compensation granted its executives, Equilar assigns a value to stock awards and options grants according to their market value on the date that they were granted, rather than the date when stock awards are vested or options exercised.

The different bottom-line figures in Boeing's filing, called a proxy filing, include accounting figures — such as adjustments for the value of the pension and projected values of stock options — that reflect the total accounting cost to the company rather than the actual take-home pay of the executives. By that measure, McNerney's total compensation was $19 million, flat from last year.

Dominic Gates: 206-464-2963 or dgates@seattletimes.com